Pieces of Me
by JenniGellerBing
Summary: Have you ever run into an old love and wondered, what if? Hermione can't seem to help it... RHr
1. Prologue

A/N: Hey, I got my new fic up! Yeah, another R/Hr, doy (you don't get a lot of doy these days...) I guess this isn't really fluffy but it's not hardcore angst. I kind of just sat down over like two days and wrote it, and honestly, if people don't like it I don't care :) I'm in an optimistic mood. This is just the prologue, I hope to have the next chapter up soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own it. I used to own a certain pressie for a certain Becca Boo, but I don't anymore. Tis in the mail, babe :-D

Pieces of Me

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PROLOGUE

Amicable.

That was the word Ginny used to describe Ron and Hermione's break-up in a letter to Mrs. Weasley. Amicable.

Harry, who was reading the letter over her shoulder, snorted loudly. Ginny looked around at him. "What's so funny?"

"Amicable? _Amicable_, Gin?"

"Yes, and?"

"Amicable break ups are not loud enough to be heard by people in the dungeons. Amicable break ups do not result in fifty points from Gryffindor for disturbing the peace. Amicable break ups - "

"All right, all right, I get the picture," Ginny said sourly. "But would you rather me tell Mum that Hermione's spent a whole day up in her room crying? That Ron's so distracted he nearly blew up the Charms classroom? Do you think she'd like to hear _that_?"

"Well, no, probably not," Harry agreed. "I just think saying it was amicable is a bit of a lie. I mean, you were there. You saw it. _Horrific_ would be closer to the word I'd've chosen."

"Then you write the damn letter," Ginny said bitterly. "Harry, do you really think this is it? That they're completely over?"

Harry sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "I don't know. God knows they've fought before, more times than I can count, but something about this time was different. Worse."

"Do you think they can even be friends again?" Ginny asked quietly.

"I don't know," Harry said, shaking his head. "I really don't know." The portrait hole opened and Ron entered, stomping grouchily over to where Harry and Ginny were, sitting grouchily down in an armchair, and grouchily folding his arms.

"Ron?" Ginny said. "Ron? _RON!_"

"What?" Ron snapped.

"Where've you been?"

"Walking," Ron said shortly. Ginny pursed her lips and went back to her letter. "Who're you writing to?"

"Mum," Ginny replied.

"Oh." Ron went back to staring moodily at some point across the room. Ginny looked at Harry, who shrugged. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"So have you been studying for your Defense Against the Dark Arts NEWT?" Ginny asked, valiantly trying to stimulate some kind of reaction in Ron.

"No," Ron said.

"How do you expect to get into Auror training if you don't even - "

"Could we not talk about it?" Ron interrupted loudly.

"Fine, fine," Ginny said, raising her eyebrows. "Just trying make sure you don't throw your life down the toilet, but if you don't care..."

Ron, apparently, didn't care enough to even answer.

At that moment, Hermione trudged down the staircase from the girl's dormitory, looking almost as grouchy as Ron. She was holding a large, red Gryffindor Qudditch sweater that Ron had let her borrow several weeks before.

"I believe this is yours," she said primly, dropping it unceremoniously on Ron's lap and not making eye contact.

Ron looked up at her. "Thanks." Harry and Ginny exchanged a glance - this was the first relatively civil exchange Ron and Hermione had had.

"I don't know how I ever let it touch me," Hermione muttered rudely.

"Hermione, could we not - " Ginny said, in a desperate attempt to prevent another row.

"No, I want to hear what she has to say," Ron said loudly. "I knew you always thought you were better than me - "

"I never _thought_ I was better than you until you went and proved it for me, " Hermione interrupted.

"Yeah, well Harry thinks that - "

"Harry doesn't think anything!" Harry said quickly.

"But you said - " Ron said, turning to his best friend.

"I don't want to be in the middle of this!" Harry cried. "Don't drag me into it."

"Yes, Ronald, Harry shouldn't have to betray you by saying he knows I'm right," Hermione said airily.

"Now, Hermione, you're no better!" Harry yelled. "How about I just say one thing. Neither of you are right about anything! Now could you please let me get back to my studying?" He glared furiously from Hermione to Ron, and then went back to his Charms notecards.

"Now see what you've done?" Hermione hissed to Ron.

"What _I've_ done? You're the one getting all high-and-mighty!" Ron shot back.

"That's it," Harry said. "Both of you, shut it right now, or I'll do it for you." Hermione and Ron gaped at him for a minute before Hermione made a sound of irritation, turned on her heel, and stormed up to the girls dorms, and Ron threw himself down in his chair and crossed his arms once again.

"_Luckily, they have managed to stay friendly throughout all of it_," Ginny read aloud from her letter.

A/N: Pretty short, but there will be more soon. Thanks, please leave a review! :)


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

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FOUR YEARS LATER

"Hello, I'd like to open my vault? It's number 659," Hermione said.

"Key, please," the goblin behind the desk said. Hermione placed it on the counter and he inspected it. "Someone will be with you in a moment," he said shortly.

"Thank you," Hermione said. She looked around Gringotts, at the high ceilings and polished floor, at the red-haired man speaking to the goblin next to her...

"No," Hermione whispered, realization slamming her in the face. "No - it's got to be one of the others. Not him, not him, I can't deal with him right now..." She glanced sideways back at the man, praying for it to be Bill, Charlie, even Percy - but no. Fate was a fickle friend, and as fate would have it, the Weasley next to her was none other than Ron. At the same moment Hermione saw him, Ron saw her. His eyes widened.

"Hermione?" he said.

_I suppose I can't run now,_ Hermione thought. She pasted on a fake, friendly smile. "Hi, Ron." _Nice opener._

"Hi!" Ron said. "Wow, I - hi!" Hermione couldn't help but smile at the aghast look on his face. "It's been a long time. You look great."

"About four years, and thank you," Hermione said. "You look... exactly the same." She felt nostalgia fill her. He really _did_ look exactly the same - just slightly taller, with the same over-the-top red hair and freckles. They were 22 now, four years since graduation from Hogwarts, four years since they'd last seen each other.

"I don't know whether that's a compliment or not," Ron said, wrinkling his nose. "So, how've you been?"

"Good, and you?" Hermione said automatically. God - how weird this felt, to be making _small talk_ with him, even weirder than not seeing him at all.

"Great. So, Harry told me last time he heard from you, you were still, er, in Bulgaria," Ron hemmed.

"Yes, I was. But, I'm not, now."

"Oh." Hermione could see him bursting to ask why, so she took a deep breath and answered.

"Viktor and I broke up," she said. "He - he was cheating on me."

"Oh," Ron said again.

"So, um, what about you?" she said, hurriedly changing the subject. "You and Harry are still working for the Order, right?"

"Yeah, day and night," Ron said.

"Are you seeing anyone?" Hermione felt herself blurt out.

"Well, yeah, actually, I - "

"Hermione Granger? Is that you?"

Hermione spun around to see a blonde woman entering the bank. She squinted at her - this woman looked like no one Hermione had ever seen. She moved slowly and almost appeared to wander up to where Hermione and Ron were standing. Her eyes were large and wide, and suddenly it hit Hermione.

"_Luna_?" she gasped.

"Yes, you remember," Luna said, smiling.

"Well, of course, I..." Hermione's voice trailed off as Luna walked straight up to Ron and put her arm around him.

"So, you've heard our news, I suppose?" Luna asked as Ron slid an easy arm around her waist. Without waiting for an answer, she said, "We're engaged!"

Hermione felt her mouth slowly open and then close. Luna was smiling at her without seeming to notice that Hermione was looking like her heart had just been torn from her chest, while Ron was looking anywhere _but_ at Hermione with an extremely uncomfortable gaze.

"I... oh," Hermione finally managed to stammer. "Wow. I... congratulations. This is... quite a surprise."

"I know, isn't it?" Luna said happily. "It all happened rather fast. It's a strange world, isn't it?"

"Strange indeed," Hermione mustered. "Well - uh - I'd better be going." She couldn't watch them anymore; her throat was closing up in a most unexpected way. "I have to get - to get back."

"Wait," Ron said. "Where are you staying?"

"At the Leaky Cauldron," she mumbled. "See you, then." She turned and ran past them, leaving Luna with a slightly confused expression and Ron with, if possible, one even more awkward, and ignoring the goblin behind the desk as he shouted, "Wait, you forgot your key!"

Hermione pushed through the doors onto the sidewalk, nearly slamming into a little old witch. She stumbled around to the side of the building and collapsed against the wall, letting her head fall into her hands.

_Engaged._ Ron Weasley and Luna Lovegood - _engaged_? Why had no one told her this? Harry, Ginny, neither of them had mentioned that Ron was even _dating_ Luna!

And Luna, of all people - Ron thought Luna was a joke when they were younger, an odd girl; he treated her nice enough after the Department of Mysteries, but still made fun of her behind her back. And now he was marrying her? Hermione felt like her stomach had fallen out. She hadn't seen Ron or Luna since graduation, and now she comes back to London and the first thing she sees is them wrapped in each other's arms.

Hermione shook her head and took a deep, calming breath. She swallowed the lump in her throat, held her head high, and marched back to the Leaky Cauldron.

"What do you mean, my room is gone?" Hermione shouted at the innkeeper.

"I told you, miss, the wizard in the room next to you had a bit of accident, and half of the second floor is engulfed in Everlasting flames. You're going to have to find someplace else to sleep tonight." He shrugged and walked away.

Hermione clenched her fists and plopped down in a chair next to the window. She leaned her forehead against the icy pane. It had begun to rain a few hours before and hadn't stopped since.

Where could she go? She hadn't spoken to anyone in London since she'd left Hogwarts, save Harry and Ginny. Ginny still lived at the Burrow, and although no one there held anything against her after she and Ron broke up, she didn't think it would be the most comfortable atmosphere. So that left only Harry - but he and Ron were flatmates.

"Not that it matters, Ron will probably be over with _Luna_, anyway," Hermione muttered under her breath. She sighed and picked up her bag.

_Not like I have any other choice._


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Greetings! Not much to say here, thanks for the reviews, and big hugs to Becca. Becca, you are my hero! Your stories rock, Dracey needs to die, and you could run your hands through his hair and then wash your hands.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Really. Except… no, nothing.

Chapter 2

On the run from the Knight Bus to Harry and Ron's apartment building, Hermione was drenched by the rain. She pulled a soggy piece of parchment out of her bag, with the exact address on it. The Muggle complex was dingy and dusty, with no elevator. She climbed four flights of stairs to reach the fifth floor, then stopped at flat number 28. She knocked wearily on the door.

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Please let it be Harry, please let it be Harry, please let it be...

The door swung open, and standing there was Ron. He raised his eyebrows, looking startled.

"Hi," he said uneasily.

"Can I stay here tonight?" Hermione asked, sounding much more pathetic than she would've wished.

"Huh?"

"I don't have anywhere to stay. Some idiot burned up my room at the Leaky Cauldron, and I don't know anyone else in the city. If you guys have a couch or something I could just kip on..."

"Well... sure. Of course you can," Ron said, opening the door wider and letting Hermione in. She put her bag down and went over to the sink to wring out her long hair. Then she sat down at the kitchen table, biting her lip as she and Ron attempted to avoid eye contact without seeming like they were avoiding eye contact.

"So, what are you doing back here, anyway? In England, that is," Ron asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Well, since Viktor and I broke up, I didn't really have a reason to stay in Bulgaria, so I thought I might come back here to work for the Ministry, now that they're on our side. Harry's been trying to convince me to come and work for the Order, but I was never really cut out for all the intense stuff. That was more what you guys liked."

Ron shrugged. "To tell you the truth, we don't do a lot of 'intense stuff.' Harry's getting rather bothered about it, in fact."

"Where is Harry, anyway?" Hermione asked, looking wistfully around the apartment. "I was hoping to see him."

"He'll be home soon, I expect," Ron said.

"I - I really miss being with you guys," Hermione admitted after a moment. "I was lonely in Bulgaria. It's nice to be back." They smiled at each other briefly, and Hermione felt her heart race. _No - it's not like that with us anymore, it can't be like that_...

"Why did you leave?" Ron asked in a low voice.

"You know why I left - Viktor was - "

"No, that's what you told everyone. Why did you _really_ leave?" Ron asked, sounding sadder than she'd heard him sound all night. "It was because of me, wasn't it," he said in a monotone.

"No, not exactly," Hermione said carefully. "It was both of us. All three of us, actually. It was only four years ago, Ron, you haven't forgotten how much we fought. The summer after graduation was terrible, with Harry going back and forth between us, he couldn't stand it. So when Viktor asked me to come live with him again, I thought it would be best. Harry didn't need the two of us causing problems... I thought of all the bad times - "

"But what about the good times?" Ron said, almost pleadingly. "We had so many good times, Hermione. Seven years of them. Harry misses you, Ginny misses you - I miss you, too." Hermione looked up at Ron and he reddened slightly but continued to watch her, almost defiantly.

"I thought you hated me," she whispered. "When I said I would go back to him - I didn't think we could ever be friends again."

"Can we try?" Ron asked, so quietly Hermione almost didn't hear him. "I want to try to be friends."

"Of course we can." She stood up and crossed to him, wrapping him in a brief hug. God, how good it felt to hold him again after all these years.

"We did have a lot of good times," Hermione said, situating herself on the couch next to him. "Remember Christmas?"

"Which one?" Ron asked, glancing at her.

"The year you got me the book," Hermione said, smiling.

"Oh, yeah..."

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"Happy Christmas, you lazy bum."

Ron opened his eyes to see Hermione about three inches from his face, grinning broadly.

"Happy Christmas," he mumbled, finding it hard not to smile with her perched on the bed looking excited as a toddler. "What time 'sit?" He rubbed his eyes and sat up. His dorm mates were all waking up and yawning.

"Almost 9 o'clock," Hermione said.

"_Lazy bum_? You call this late?" he said, feigning disgruntlement.

"Well, it is for _me,_" she said. "But I wanted to give you my present!"

"No, I want to give you mine first," Ron said quickly.

"Okay!" Hermione sat back and crossed her legs under her. "Where is it?"

Ron leaned over the edge of his bed and pulled bulky object out from under it, wrapped messily in green paper with little gold bubbles on it. He handed it to her and kissed her on the cheek awkwardly, mumbling, "Happy Christmas," again.

She inspected the wrapping for a moment before eagerly tearing it off to find - a book. Ron bit his lip as Hermione stared at the book.

"Do you like it?"

She looked up at him, a very forced smile on her face. "Yes. It's very nice."

"I thought you would like it," Ron said, feeling his face fall at the barely-hidden look of disappointment on Hermione's. "It's on the ancient runes in Egypt and their connection to runes in Europe..."

"Yes, I know." Hermione looked down at the book again.

"Well, open it up!" he encouraged her.

"No - no I don't think I will right now," Hermione said, her voice shaking slightly. "Oh, I just remembered, I've left your present in my room - so I'll see you later, then." Without another look at Ron, Hermione clutched the book to her chest and ran from the room.

"No - it's here!" Ron called after her, holding up the neatly wrapped present she left on his bed. He furrowed his brow and looked over at Harry, who was opening a box of Chocolate Frogs on the foot of his bed. "What'd I do?" he asked, bewildered.

Harry shrugged and Ron jumped out of bed, chasing Hermione down the stairs and out into the common room, but she wasn't there.

"That's a nice look for you, Ron," Parvati said, and she and Lavender laughed. Ron blushed, thinking of his too-short pajamas and bedhead.

"Did you see Hermione?" he asked.

"She's up in her room, crying," Ginny said, appearing down from the girls staircase.

"_What?"_ Ron gasped, whirling around to face his sister.

"Why?" asked Harry, who'd followed Ron downstairs.

"Because of your present! I cannot believe that for your first Christmas together, you gave her a _book_," Ginny said scathingly.

Lavender and Parvati gasped. "A book?" Lavender asked.

"My goodness, he is thick," Parvati said, shaking her head sadly.

"He certainly is," Ginny agreed, glaring at Ron.

"But - but it isn't about the book!" Ron cried desperately.

"Of course it's about the book!" Ginny said. "It doesn't matter, anyway - she threw it out the window."

"_What?_" Ron gasped again. "Oh, no!" He looked out the window in a panic, seeing the blinding snow, then turned and ran out through the portrait hole wearing only his tiny pajamas and ratty old slippers.

"What's he doing?" Ginny asked, shocked. "He's gone to rescue the bloody book?"

"It _really_ wasn't about the book," Harry said, appearing torn between sympathy for his friend and amusement at the plight. "He put a necklace in it, that was the real present."

"Oh, that's so sweet!" Lavender murmured.

"In the book?" They all turned to see Hermione standing at the foot of the staircase, her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.

"He thought it was really clever," Harry said.

"Oh, no," Hermione moaned. She peered down at the grounds but couldn't see anything except snow. "He's going to catch a cold out there, it's freezing!"

"And he's got those horrid pajamas on," Parvati added unhelpfully.

"I'll go after him," Hermione said. She sprinted up to her room to get her cloak, then dashed back down to the Common room and out the portrait hole. She ran through the deserted corridors and waited impatiently for a staircase to move back into place. Finally she pushed open the large front doors and attempted to follow Ron's footsteps out to the ground beneath Gryffindor tower.

"Ron!" she yelled, barely able to see through the snow. She was already wet and cold and miserable. "Ron!" When she saw him, she plowed through the snow, falling over twice, until she reached the spot where he was frantically searching for the fallen book.

"Ron, I'm sorry!" she cried. "I'm so sorry!"

"There was a necklace - in the book," Ron said, looking up at her with an anguished expression.

"I know, I know, I'm so sorry I threw it out the window!" Hermione cried, throwing her arms around him.

"I have to find it!" Ron said, falling back to his hands and knees to dig through the snow. "It's got to be here somewhere."

"Don't worry about it, I don't need it," Hermione said, attempting to pull him back up.

"But - but it's our first Christmas together, I wanted to get you something really good, and now I've messed up again," Ron said distraughtly.

"No, it's all my fault," Hermione said. "Now, please, let's go back inside, you'll freeze to death. Look, you're turning blue!" She put her hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle a laugh.

"It is kind of cold," Ron said, as if suddenly realizing he was in the middle of a blizzard.

"Let me warm you up," Hermione said with a grin, putting her arms around him again and kissing him. They broke apart after a minute, startled, when red fireworks shot out of a window from Gryffindor tower. Hermione laughed.

"Oi, what're you two doing out here?" Hagrid, in his moleskin overcoat, was suddenly upon them. "And in your nightclothes too, are yeh mad?"

"It was a book - "

"With a necklace - "

" - dropped it out the window - "

"Wait a second," Hagrid said. "D'yeh mean this book?" He reached into his pocket and produced the brown-covered book.

"Oh, my God, Hagrid, you found it!" Hermione cried, taking the book from him.

"More like it nearly hit me on the 'ead on my way up here. You should be more careful with your books, Hermione," Hagrid said.

"Oh, I will," Hermione said, laughing. "Thank you so much."

"Now you get back up to your rooms, hear me?" Hagrid said. "And a Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas!" Hermione and Ron called after him. Hermione turned to Ron and then opened the book. There, in the front pocket, was a necklace with a small, glowing crystal heart.

"Oh, it's beautiful," Hermione breathed, holding it in her hand. Ron took it from her and put it around her neck, clasping it with cold, awkward hands.

"D'you wanna g-g-go up n-n-now?" Ron asked, his teeth chattering. Hermione kissed him one last time and took his hand, leading him back through the snow.


End file.
